An Early Frost

An Early Frost was the first major film to deal with the topic of HIV/AIDS. It was first broadcast on NBC on November 11, 1985. It starred Aidan Quinn as Michael Pierson, a Chicago attorney who goes home to break the news that he is homosexual and has AIDS to his parents, played by Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands.

Reviews, awards, and aftermath

Tom Shales of the Washington Post called An Early Frost "the most important TV movie of the year," although he had misgivings about the character played by Quinn, writing that "the central character has been made so far removed from the stereotypical homosexual that it could be argued he is stereotypically unstereotypical."

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Tom Shales - Washington Post

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The film was number one in the Nielsen ratings during the night it aired, garnering a 23.3 share (the film outperformed a San Francisco 49ers-Denver Broncos game broadcast on ABC and a Cagney & Lacey episode dealing with abortion on CBS). The film also won an Emmy Award for best writing of a limited series or special (Quinn was also nominated for lead actor in a special, though he lost to Dustin Hoffman). However, the network lost $500,000 in revenue because advertisers were leery about sponsoring the film. The three main networks shied away from airing programming with similar themes until 1988, although in the weeks following the broadcast of An Early Frost, episodes of St. Elsewhere, Mr. Belvedere, and Hotel dealt with AIDS issues, and in July 1986, Showtime broadcast the AIDS film As Is. The movie paved the way for later TV and general release films dealing with the topic of AIDS, including The Ryan White Story (1989), Longtime Companion (1990), and Philadelphia (1993), which won Tom Hanks, whose Andrew Beckett was similar in many ways to Michael Pierson, an Academy Award for Best Actor.

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Nielsen ratings - San Francisco 49ers - Denver Broncos - ABC - Cagney & Lacey - CBS - Emmy Award - Dustin Hoffman - St. Elsewhere - Mr. Belvedere - Hotel - 1986 - Showtime - The Ryan White Story - 1989 - Longtime Companion - 1990 - Philadelphia - 1993 - Tom Hanks - Academy Award for Best Actor

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